I guess I'm not all that surprised.

A video I did for an environmental blog (faircompanies.com) was posted on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJc8973GURk

It is almost up to a quarter million views!

I have been getting people all over the country tracking me down on Facebook and asking to be friends and asking questions after the see it.

Since there are probably plenty of people with the same questions who don't go to the trouble to track me down, I'm reposting my answers to some of those questions here:

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I can't believe how popular that video has become. It was done with no preparation, no script, no practice, really not even a clear focus (they split the interview into 3 parts, but the other two never gained any viewers)

Its funny, I don't really even think of it as a "lifestyle".
I guess maybe because I've been doing it so long.
I bought a camper van right out of high school, which I slept in during the week to avoid having to commute to work. My girlfriend of the time went on a 2000 mile bike ride, and when she came back she suggested we get a full size RV and move in together. Eventually an opportunity arose to join a traveling carnival in the mid-west, so we set out across the country. We ended up spending a year on the east coast before moving back to the SF bay area. We upgraded to the trailer in the youtube video not long before we ended up getting divorced. For the past 4 years I've been in one place, and don't really consider the trailer to be a vehicle.

So I have been in 3 sizes and types of RV, full timed on the road and in trailer parks, and lived in different climates, different size cities, etc.

For the most part, living in an RV is a lot like living in a house. Driving an RV is like driving a car.

You know, I never thought of what I did as "scavenging" until that video was taken. I didn't come up with a script in advance, and was just making stuff up as I went along. I didn't know it was a movement either.

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In answer to specific questions:

This is my 3rd RV.

-Length: 35ft
-Width: 8ft (slide out covers living room and kitchen, bedroom is smaller)
(total of about 250 sq ft)
-Weight: 8500lbs
-Towing: My 1983 biodiesel powered F-250 can tow it. However, I've only moved it twice. It lives in the trailer park permanently.
-Purchased: Used in 2005 (it was made in 1995)
-Cost: $7,500
-Manufacturer: Jayco
-Model: Designer Series 3120 FK SS Travel Trailer

Prior to this one, I had a 1973 27' "Robinhood" Class C motorhome (purchased for $2500) which I shared with my (now ex) wife and two cats.
Before that I had a 1969 converted Dodge B100 utility van Class B motorhome, which I never officially lived in full time, but stayed in during the week to avoid a long commute.

My camper van was small and nondescript enough to get away with sleeping in parking lots or on the side of the road. Then I moved in with my fiancee, and we upgraded to the Class C motorhome, which was big and old and in moderate condition. We spent much more on repairs than it cost us to buy it, but we drove it across the country and back, and lived in it for about 5 years, including an east coast winter. I currently live in the 1995 35' travel trailer which you see in the video, which cost me $7500 and has had almost no problems since I bought it. It is very spacious, comfortable, and efficient, and I have done very little to it. I live in a trailer park, which means I have to pay rent, but also that I have a permanent (legal) place to stay, access to water, sewer, electricity, phone, internet, and mail.

I lived for about a year in Northern NJ (just east of the Lincoln Tunnel) in the 27ft Class C.
Our sewer pipes froze, the cat's water dish froze, the solar panel on the roof got snowed over and the batteries died. The temperature was regularly below 0 all through the winter. I haven't lived anywhere where it gets above 100 regularly, but I stayed in a spot in CA that hit high 90s in the summer.
The RV was insulated, double walls with fiberglass in between, just like a house. I'm fairly certain all modern RVs are. They are also easier to heat and cool just because they are small, so there is much less air space. In addition I tinted the windows to retard radiant heat loss. When we were parked in NJ, I added rigid foam insulation all around the bottom outside of the RV, covering the wheel wells and trapping an air space under the RV. I routed the furnace exhaust into this space so it would heat the floor and not just be wasted. It was our first time living in snow, so we had no idea what we were doing (they make heaters specifically for pipes!) but once we got all the details worked out, we were able to live very comfortably.

My current rig is in a park in the San Francisco Bay Area in CA, and the weather stays nice here. I very rarely turn on the central furnace, opting to use a cheaper and more efficient electric space heater (to heat only the room I'm in). Now that I upgraded to a instant (tankless) waterheater, I am only refilling my propane about once or twice a year ($40). I do still use the air conditioning when its hot. Sometimes I end up paying $10 a month for electricity instead of $5.

I never expected so much feedback from that video! I am happy to know it is inspiring people. Feel free to ask anymore questions you may have if you go forward with it!

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So, you are inspired to look into living small (and mobile)...

Where to start:
Decide the basic type you want. There are 6:

Class A - great big motor RV based on a bus body
Class C - slightly smaller motor RV, with an overhang above the driver compartment
Class B - much smaller motor RV, basically a large van
Travel Trailer - gets towed with a standard hitch
5th Wheel - has a hitch similar to a semi truck - need a special mount installed in the pickup that tows it - usually larger than travel trailers
Pop-up trailer (or tent trailer)- a travel trailer, but one that folds down for easy transport, walls are made of fabric
Camper Shell - entire RV installs on the back of a pick up truck.

They all have to be registered, whether or not they are driven (although on parked on private property, that is rarely - if ever - going to be enforced). If it was parked you could register it as not being driven for a discount (this is all in CA, I don't know about other states.) If you are just traveling through, its fine to just be registered in your home state (even if "traveling through" means staying for several months, or even years in most cases).
Motorhomes have to be insured if they are driven. Trailers don't (the tow vehicle needs to be insured). But its a good idea. I don't have full coverage on my truck, but my RV is my home, and cost me a lot of money, so I pay for the full coverage insurance. Plus, it also doubles as home owners insurance. Its less expensive than full coverage for a car or homeowners insurance.

Every style has its advantages and disadvantages. The main considerations are how much space do you want, and do you want it to be self-propelled or towed. If you plan to actually travel, a built-in engine (Class A B or C) is incomparably more convenient. If you plan to stay in one place, the engine in a motorhome just takes up space and makes it more expensive. The advantage of more size is, obviously, its more comfortable to live in and you can fit more stuff in it, but it becomes increasingly harder to drive, find a place to park, stay inconspicuous when parking on public streets, and is less efficient.

When I wanted to travel and stay low profile, I looked at motorhomes. When I wanted to stay in one place, I looked into trailers. With a motorhome driving is a lot easier. With a trailer you can separate the two and make use of the truck for errands or commuting.
Aside from that, the main considerations are size, age, and price. Size is a compromise between fuel efficiency (and easy of finding parking) and comfort.

Another huge consideration is your budget. The newer you can buy, the less maintenance and repair headaches you will have. Newer will be more expensive up front, but it can be worth it. A motorhome is always more expensive than a trailer. The bigger the RV, the more it will cost. A higher quality RV will have more insulation, and more features (some of which are more useful than others).

All RVs are energy efficient, by their very nature. They are designed so that you can go out to the woods and live off of battery power and stored water for a week or two, so they have to be. There are ways to increase its efficiency even more (tinted film on the windows, LED lighting, instant water heater, solar panel), but it makes a lot less difference than it would in a house.

Its less expensive to heat and cool a small space, due to the fact that its a small space. Insulation still makes a big difference, and newer trailers do much better in that area than older ones. It also helps to put plastic sheeting over the windows (I use saran wrap) to make a cheap double pane, and to use spot heaters instead of the central furnace.

There are 2 types of trailer park. Mobile home parks are usually long term, and charge by the month, like an apartment. RV parks are short term, and charge by the day, like a hotel. They are geared toward vacationers, and are much more expensive.
On the road you will more likely come across RV parks.

You can also always park at Walmart. Their policy is that RVs can stay in their lots (as long as there is space) even if they aren't customers. That saves a lot of money on RV park fees. We would usually go to an RV park one or two days of the week in order to empty the waste tanks, fill the clean water, wash clothes...

Things that might not be obvious to someone just starting out:
Use RV specific toilet paper. Regular stuff will clog. You can get it at RV parks, RV supply stores, or walmart.
Drive slow. In a big square vehicle mileage and safety are both going to drop really fast with even small increases in speed. No more than 55mph, or 5mph under the speed limit, whichever is lower.
Try to drive with water tanks as low (or empty) as possible. The weight will affect mileage, handling, and braking distance. Keep tires fully inflated for the same reason.

I always use city water. Water in the US is safe to drink even in the worst cities. Bottled water has lower standards imposed on it, and is often tap water in a bottle. It is crazy inefficient. In a park you get pressure by hooking a garden hose up to the RV, the rest of the time you fill the water tank and use the onboard pump.

I am not familiar with purpose built "green" RVs, but I am familar with those systems. They would be fairly easy to retrofit (for much less money!!) if one wanted to. I have a instant water heater and am only spending about $40 a year on gas, so, although it would be cool to have a solar pre-heater, its really not worth it. Same with electricity - on my old RV I did install a solar panel, but in the new one I am only using around 50kWh a month, at $5 a month in electricity, I don't have much incentive to buy a $500+ solar system.

For the most part though, living in an RV is a lot like living in a house. Driving an RV is like driving a car.

RVs are terribly inefficient at driving. Here are some ideas of ways you could improve it:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/..showthread.php/okay-heres-..challenge-mod-my-winnebago-..1051.html

http://ecomodder.com/forum/..showthread.php/getting-..mileage-motorhome-9123.html

And, of course, my own page:
http://www.instructables.com/..id/Vehicle-efficiency-..upgrades/

Dec 14, 2007

3 letters to Utne

I got a free copy of the Utne Reader at the SF Green festival.
First one I had ever read, although I recognized the name as something Aileen had recommended years ago.

It was chock full of interesting articles on a wide variety of important issues, many of which are relevant to me. I think I'll subscribe.

Three articles inspired letters to the editor, (two of which are available to read on their website).

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Salvage Beauty

I realize that the San Francisco Bay Area in CA is not necessarily representative of the rest of the country, but around here at least, this is not exactly news.

Our version of the "Loading Dock" - Urban Ore - in Berkeley, has been open for 25 years.
It opened originally with materials actually extracted from a landfill, and continues today with drop offs from haulers and donations from the public, as well as a recovery team at the nearby transfer station.
They are very profitable, employ a full time staff, and pay haulers and the public for high quality good condition items.
They have by now spawned a number of smaller copycat stores in the area, with somewhat more specialized focuses.

As a hauler myself, I face plenty of competition in this area from other haulers who, like myself, run their trucks on vegetable oil and donate / recycle / reuse and sell as much of what we pick up as possible.

Far from just making an incredible difference environmentally (both preventing landfill and reducing the need for new materials being made), it also makes great financial sense for everyone involved.
People shopping at a reuse store pay a fraction of what they would, many times for materials which are in excellent condition - sometimes never even used!
As a hauler, I pay much less in dump fees than I would if I simply disposed of everything in one place.
And that means that I in turn can afford to charge my customers a lot less.
Everyone wins.
I hope before long every city can take this concept as much for granted as we are able to here.
Until then, keep up the good work, reporting on stuff like this.

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Low Rent High Tech

One form of affordable and green housing which everyone always over looks is the RV park.

RVs as transportation are woefully inefficient, but keep one in one place...

RVs are designed to be able to run off of their own battery power and propane tanks off the grid for weeks or even months at a time.
Things like absorption cycle fridges and a tankless toilet (which have high premiums in home versions) come standard.

An RV uses less than 1/25th the electricity of the average American home, and around and 1/15th the average water.

At the same time, it is by far the least expensive (non-subsidized) form of housing. Both in the San Francisco Bay Area and 10 miles out of Manhattan (two of the most expensive areas in the country, where 1 bdrm apts can go for over $1500 a month) an RV space (with full hook-ups for water, electricity, phone, internet, cable, sewer, plus garbage and mail service) can be had for just over $400.

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America Incarcerated

I was very happy with my first ever issue of Utne, especially the unusually straight-forward and un-biased article on the issues surrounding the US prison system. Expect a subscription after I finish this letter.

There were, however, a couple of points I wanted to add.
While it was, briefly, touched upon that everyone, regardless of circumstances, has personal choice and responsibility, it disturbed me how strong the implication was that certain circumstances "make" people commit crimes. I am a black male, I grew up in a single parent home, on welfare and section 8 (subsidized housing), in a bad neighborhood where the sound of gun shots and police helicopters were only remarkable if they were actually on the same block as us. Not only have I not committed any violent crimes, I was never in any fights growing up, never been arrested, didn't drop out of school, etc. etc...
I don't think that anyone gets to use there living conditions as an excuse for their choices. There is always something else a person could do to, say, make money to feed their children.

That being said, my larger issue is actually that the article did not go far enough in explaining society and history's role in creating the undeniable statistical trends which clearly parallel race lines.
While it was before any of our lifetimes, and we tend not to think of as real anything we can not personally remember, the truth is this is a very young country, and nothing in its time can be written off as ancient history. Slavery was incredibly recent: the civil war ended only 142 years ago. (Contrast that to the time civilization has existed, around 5000 years). That is in fact only about 2 lifetimes, or about 5 generations.
Meanwhile European Americans have had over 250 years to accumulate and pass down wealth.

In this country more than almost any other since the time of monarchies wealth is generated from already having wealth (which is literally the definition of capitalism), and inheritance is virtually unrestricted.

Most white families, (whether here from the beginning of the country, or immigrating here since then) started out with some amount of wealth (or had connections to someone here who did). Freed slaves had literally nothing. The reparations approved by congress never happened. On top of that, Jim Crow and other discriminatory laws kept Blacks from accumulating any appreciable amount of wealth all the way up until the 1960s, a mere 47 years ago, less than a single lifetime.

That means that while white American families have been accumulating and passing down wealth for 10 generations, black American families are just getting started for the first time ever.

On top of that, our educational system is set up so that the primary source of funding is property and other local taxes, generally at the county level. This means that wealthier areas are able to provide their kids with more and better equipment, computers, newer textbooks, and attract better teachers. School which do poorly (largely due to under funding) are faced with having what federal funding is available cut - in other words, our system of penalizing under-performing schools means that the more a school needs money, the less it gets, while schools that are doing well (and therefore don't really need a bonus of federal money) gets more.

Between these two things, unrestricted inheritance and locally funded schools, is it any wonder how few people (of any color) break through the social class of their parents? In this country we love to point out those rare success stories, such as Will Smith portraying the true story of a homeless stockbroker in The Pursuit of Happiness, but the reality is we have set up a social system that makes upward mobility all but completely unrealistic except in the rarest of cases.

The solution is actually pretty simple. Although unfortunately I can't imagine anyone of influence daring to suggest either part any time soon given our current political climate. One would be to essentially eliminate inheritance. No one should be entitled to get money our resources they didn't earn. Inheritance sets up a virtual caste system, where the luck of whom you are born to determines your chances in life. It would be unrealistic to try to restrict it altogether, but a steeply progressive tax ranging from (say) 40% up to 75% seems to me reasonably appropriate and fair - for that matter, the same might be applied to all unearned income, which would also allow the tax rate on people who actually work and are productive to be reduced.
The second would be to make all public schools, K-12 as well as 2 years of college funded 100% on the federal level, with the same per-capita amount going to every school regardless of demographic, test scores, state, or whether it is rural or urban.

I also think that, as the author suggested, the use of drugs should be decriminalized (although the sale of many may be appropriate to remain illegal, use itself should be considered a disease) and given the current demographics this alone would go a long way to reducing the incarceration cycle in African American communities. This may be more a symptom than a cause though. There are a myriad of other issues that relate to the social dynamics of race in this country as well.
However, I think if we were to change just those to things, a more reasonable distribution of un-earned wealth and an equal educational system, we would see major changes with in a generation or two with out having to do much further micro-management.

A Different Perspective

24 November 2010

Minor celebrity

Minor celebrity

15 August 2008

Part 1 of aforementioned movie is now up

Part 1 of aforementioned movie is now up

14 December 2007

3 letters to Utne

3 letters to Utne

Salvage Beauty

Low Rent High Tech

America Incarcerated

07 September 2006

Category 18; in which you can live cheap, no matter your income

Category 18; in which you can live cheap, no matter your income

28 July 2006

Issue one; in which I respond to an article on RVing

Issue one; in which I respond to an article on RVing

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